12:00 AM PDT on Tuesday, July 17, 2007

By JIM MILLER
Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO - Ethnic caucuses, representing a third of state lawmakers, want to eliminate funding for new judges next year, citing what they call Gov. Schwarzenegger's poor record in naming judges of color in Riverside, San Bernardino and other counties.

Last year's budget targeted the largest share of the 50 new judgeships -- 15 -- for Inland courtrooms, the most crowded in California. About half of the slots have been filled. The budget package pending in the Legislature would allocate another 50 judges, 14 to the Inland area, by June 30, 2008.

But in a recent letter to top legislators, leaders of the Latino, Asian Pacific Islander, and black legislative caucuses complained that Schwarzenegger has failed to follow through on assurances that his judicial appointees would reflect California's diversity.

In particular, they cited last month's batch of 26 judicial appointments, almost all of which filled newly created positions. Of the appointees, three were black, one was Latino and none was of Asian heritage. The latter two are among the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the state.

Governor's spokeswoman Gena Grebitus said the administration has gone to great lengths to recruit nonwhite judges.

"We want a bench that represents California's population," Grebitus said. "If people aren't applying, it's hard to get them into those positions."

It's the second summer in a row in which judicial diversity has become a budget issue. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, temporarily reduced funding for the first round of judges.

"Last year, all of us voted for the budget that gave him 50 new judges. We did that in good faith. Then his record gets worse," said one of the letter's signers, Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, the incoming chairman of the Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and a lawyer.

"Really, the only leverage we have as a Legislature is to not fund additional new judge positions if he's just going to continue down the path of ignoring judicial diversity," Lieu said.

The proposal put forward by the Legislature's majority Democrats would allocate $27.2 million in the 2007-08 budget for the next 50 judges. Plans call for another 50 judges in 2008-09.

Assemblyman John J. Benoit, R-Bermuda Dunes, a member of the Budget Committee, criticized the caucuses' demand to ax the funding.

"I would challenge them to show us a qualified minority candidate who hasn't been appointed or strongly considered," Benoit said.

Lieu and others contend that they have encouraged many nonwhite candidates to apply but they have been inexplicably passed over. But, Benoit said the $171,648 annual salary of a judge falls short of what many nonwhite lawyers can earn in the private sector.

The U.S. Census Bureau says nearly 44 percent of California's population in 2005 was white, 35 percent was Hispanic, 12 percent was Asian, 6.7 percent was black and the balance were American Indian or Pacific Islander.The first statewide judge survey for ethnicity and gender, released in March, showed that about 70 percent of the state's judiciary is white and nearly 73 percent of the judges are men.

It said 6.3 percent of the judges were Hispanic. Black and Asian judges were each at 4.4 percent for the 1,598 judicial officers surveyed.

About 10 percent of those surveyed did not answer the question.